Loving The Alien
by hat-and-goggles
Summary: The story takes place in 1954, in a town in New Mexico. Roughly seven years after a mysterious object crashed into the nearby desert, a woman Shiro met that night returns to his diner when he needs it the most.
1. Prologue: The Woman Who Fell To Earth

_July 8th, 1947, 11 PM._

It was a quiet night at the diner. Not much of a surprise, nobody would willingly go out in the pouring rain like this. Shiro looked up from the grill, where he was making himself a late-night meal, to look outside and watch the rain pelting at the windows. His heart skipped a beat when he saw a girl standing by the door. Disheveled and soaked to the bone. He quickly flipped his burger onto the raw side and hurried over to the door, pulling it open for her.

"Excuse me, miss? Are you alright?" He asked her. When no response came, he spoke up again. "Would you like to come inside? I've got some dry clothes and coffee to warm you up." The girl immediately nodded and Shiro stepped aside to let her in, closing the door behind her.

He rushed her to the back room of the restaurant to hand her a few towels, a spare waitress uniform and his own jacket. "Here, you can dry off and wear these for the time being. Wouldn't want you to catch a cold. I'll get you something to eat in the meantime."

* * *

Shiro watched as the girl chowed down the burger he made her, ketchup smeared over her face and fingers. He didn't get a good look at her until now, since he was too busy to make sure she would be okay.

She had the most beautiful brown skin, thick, long, pearly white hair. Her ears seemed pointier than most others, and the pink markings on her cheekbones were a very interesting choice in makeup, Shiro noted. The pink uniform suited her very well, but his jacket was huge on her. She did look cute in it, however… _No. Absolutely not. Let's not get ahead of ourselves, Shirogane_ , he told himself internally.

"Thank you for your hospitality, kind sir. I was sent away by every other establishment on my journey, I didn't think you would allow me in…" The girl spoke softly. Shiro could tell she wasn't usually so soft spoken, but then again, she must have had a rough night to end up here, looking like this.

Shiro leaned over the counter to look at her. "May I ask what happened, miss? Maybe I could help you out."

"There was a crash a few towns over…" She mumbled. "I lost my uncle. I tried to find him, but I couldn't." Tears started welling up in her eyes and Shiro quickly handed her a napkin. "So then I decided to go look for food and a place to spend the night… stay there until he found me instead, but I was sent away from every place I tried… They all said they didn't serve 'my kind', whatever that means, but you let me in… and I'm grateful for that."

Shiro sighed. "Well, it is unfair, but not unsurprising. Most places around here are for whites only, and I hate to break it to you, miss, but you're black." He tried to joke, only to realize that it wouldn't do much to lighten the mood.

"Well, that makes no sense. I'm dark brown at best, but I'm nowhere near black." The girl said before taking another bite from her burger, squishing it enough to make a mix of ketchup and mustard dribble out the other end. "This tastes very good, by the way."

"That's not—" Shiro pinched the bridge of his nose. "You don't know what segregation is? Apartheid doesn't ring a bell?"

The girl shook her head.

"What I'd give to see the place you came from…" Shiro sighed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Those people who sent you away, they all looked a certain way, right? Light skinned, big eyes?" He asked, spreading his eyelids to illustrate his point.

The girl nodded and chuckled into her hand.

"Well, those people are what we call 'white people'. They've run pretty much everything for hundreds of years, bossing around everyone who didn't look like them, Latinos, Arabs, natives, you name it. My people too, but mostly black people like you. Even right now, it's still mostly that way. Because they think they're better than us, they want all the good places to themselves and keep us out. Even this place was like that until somehow the owner decided to hire me to run this place for him."

"That is so unfair!" She nearly shouted. "There has to be something that can be done!"

"That would be nice." Shiro mumbled. "But true emancipation is still decades away, if not centuries. We just try to make it the best we can."

The girl pretty much deflated, but went back to eating her burger and fries. "My name is Allura." She said.

"Shiro. Pleased meeting you."

"What happened to your arm, Shiro?" She asked, nodding at the sling his right arm dangled in.

"Oh, that… I just tried to break up a fight between two guards a few years ago. I mean, it was kind of successful. By giving them a common enemy, they stopped fighting one another. But I was just another Jap to beat up, so it didn't end well for me."

"I'm so sorry that happened to you. You don't deserve to be treated that way. If only..." Allura yawned, her eyes were falling shut.

"Hey, why don't you go to sleep in one of the booths over there? Then in the morning, when my shift is done and your clothes are dry, we can go look for your uncle."

"That sounds great, thank you."

* * *

When Allura woke up, it was to the sound of familiar chatter.

Coran sat on a stool at the counter with a cup of warm, black liquid and a plate of food, probably laughing at his own joke which Shiro didn't seem to understand.

Allura smiled as she sat beside him, stealing a strip of bacon from his plate and eating it.

"Good morning, princess."

"Good morning, Uncle Coran." She beamed. "How did you know where to find me?"

"That's quite straightforward, actually. I saw you through the window and I went inside. Then I got to talking to this handsome young gentleman and then he gave me 'breakfast'!"

"It's all on the house, by the way. After the night you guys had, it didn't seem fair to make you pay for the food too."

"Thank you so much, Shiro."

* * *

Shiro smiled as he watched them walk away. He turned up the radio while he waited for his co-worker to come in for his shift.

'…reports coming in of an unidentified flying object crashing at a farm in Roswell, New Mexico. Authorities refused to disclose…'

"Hm… Roswell, huh? That's not too far away."


	2. 1: Absolute Beginners

_March 1946, 8 years ago_

"So, Shirogane Takashi—Mind if I call you Shiro?" The large, older man in front of Takashi interrupted himself.

Takashi didn't really want to tell his potential new boss that Shirogane was actually his family name; he knew acting out of line could lose him the job before he even had it. "Not at all, Mr. Iverson." He said meekly.

"Tell you what, you can call me Teddy. Makes us even." The man offered.

Takashi nodded.

"Now, the reason I called you here, Shiro, is because I'm seriously impressed. You got accepted into business school, had a baseball scholarship; had everything going for you 'til you got beat up badly by some white kids, but even when you lost all use of your right arm, you didn't give up." He read from a stack of paper on his desk. The thick cigar in his mouth muffled his words ever so slightly. "Hell, you're a Jap applying for a job at a white diner. That takes some serious stones. I admire that in a man. So, I'm going hire you as the new manager."

Takashi's look shot up at Mr. Iverson immediately, the man put it so lightly, as if his decision was made on a whim, that it took a few seconds before it dawned upon him what exactly had just happened. "Wait, really? You would hire me?" He asked, still not quite believing what he had just heard.

"Yes, really. I'll desegregate the entire joint just so you can work here." Mr. Iverson—no, Teddy, smiled at him, amused by the look on his face. "My kids won't like it, nor a good amount of my customers, but I'm not getting any younger, Shiro, and I'd rather leave my restaurants in the capable hands of a resilient, colored young man such as yourself than the soggy slices of white bread that applied as well."

"Thank you so much, Mr. Iverson. I'm—I'm not sure what to say… I promise, I won't let you down!" Shiro smiled and shook the man's left hand to thank him.

 _Shiro…_ He smiled. He liked that.

* * *

 _October 1946, 7 and a half years ago_

A bell rang through the diner, signalling the opening of the door, snapping Shiro out of his daydream.

He looked up to see a family had just entered the restaurant. A white father, an Asian mother, maybe Korean, and their son.

"Dad, this is awesome! I've never been inside a real restaurant before!"

"Happy birthday, son." The father said.

"I thought we wouldn't be allowed in here." The mother mumbled.

Shiro was disappointed, but not surprised.

Teddy had chosen not to advertise about the desegregation, to not immediately lose the bulk of his usual clientele. It stung, but he understood why. However, word of mouth had spread fast enough. He had simply asked his first colored customers to spread the word to their friends, which they did. Now, after half a year, the restaurant was as busy as ever, with people of all colors and from all layers of society.

"Well, it used to be." Shiro answered from behind the counter. "We made the change official a few months ago, when I started my job as the manager here."

"So… Everyone can come here now?" The boy asked, looking up at Shiro with large, indigo eyes. He couldn't be older than twelve, had long, messy hair, and a few teeth seemed to be missing. He looked like a troublemaker, but Shiro couldn't help smiling at the unabashed wonder in his eyes.

"Yes, everyone." The young man assured him, coming out from behind the counter, holding some menus. He grinned widely as he placed a bright red birthday hat on the boy's head. "Can I get you guys a table?" he asked, looking up at the parents.

"Yes please, Mr. uh…"

"Please, just call me Shiro."

* * *

 _July 1947, 7 years ago_

Shiro smiled as he watched the girl, Allura, sleep in the booth by the window. The night had faded into the early hours of the morning, and he couldn't help but stare in pure wonder at how her pearly white hair turned into a fiery red as it reflected the brilliant orange dawn. It was basic physics, Shiro knew, but she made it seem so magical, so not of this world, so—

Shiro's gaze snapped up when he heard the door open and a panicked man rushed inside.

"Princess! Oh thank the elders you're safe!"

Shiro immediately got out from behind the counter to try and quiet the man down.

"Sir, please calm down!" he hissed at the older man. "She's alright, but I think she needs some rest. She seemed shaken when she came here…"

"You took care of her in my absence?" The mustachioed man asked, looking down at Shiro.

"Um, yes?" He panicked. Was he not supposed to? Was helping someone a crime wherever these strange people came from? His worries were more or less erased when the man, roughly his own father's age, pulled him into a bone crushing embrace.

"I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality towards the princess, young lad! I will personally see to it you will be properly rewarded for your services. Did you have anything specific in mind?"

"For you not to sever my spinal cord, please." Shiro muffled into his shoulder.

"Easily satisfied, hm? Alright, deal." The man said in his perpetually chipper tone. Shiro could only sigh in relief when he was released from the man's death grip.

"You must be her uncle Coran, then?" Shiro asked as he tried to catch his breath.

"Yep, that's me. Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, at your service." Coran smiled as he pulled Shiro's right arm from the sling and gave it a shake. "Hm, not a very firm handshake. We'll work on that."

Had it been anyone else, Shiro would have been offended by the man's sheer ignorance, but his infectious good humour made it very difficult to be angry at this 'Coran' figure. Shiro smirked as he took a firm, almost squeezing hold of Coran's bicep with his left hand, catching the man off guard.

"I'm afraid it's permanent." Shiro said, managing a wry smile. "My name is Takashi, but everyone calls me Shiro."

"Ah, I'm sorry… But it's nice to meet you nonetheless, Shiro." Coran apologized as he awkwardly maneuvered Shiro's right arm back into the sling.

"The sentiment is mutual, Mr. Smythe." Shiro said, smiling more genuinely this time. "How about some breakfast? You must be starving after looking for your niece all night."

"Thank you, that sounds great."

* * *

 _August 1954, present_

The sun was bearing down on the small, New Mexico town, smothering it with a blistering heatwave. All of the town's inhabitants seemed to have the same idea; to cool off with icy cold milkshakes at the diner.

"I'm sorry everyone!" Shiro called over the mass of people gathered at the counter, still hoping to order some sweet relief from the heat. "We're sold out of everything but burgers and fries! We'll make sure to have more tomorrow."

The crowd let out a collective sigh in disappointment and left the restaurant, only leaving Keith and his friends behind in their usual booth, when a man in a black suit entered.

"Summer heat must be working miracles for a business such as this one." He said as he took a seat at the counter.

"It really does." Shiro sighed as he wiped his forehead on a towel he kept behind the counter. "But I'm guessing you're not here for Lance's world class milkshakes."

"I'm not. I have a letter for a Takashi Shirogane. Is he here?"

"You're talking to him." Shiro smiled at the man, but when the stern look on his face didn't crack, Shiro's smile fell. "Teddy isn't doing well, is he?"

The man across from him shook his head as he produced a letter from his pocket and handed it to Shiro. "He wanted this delivered to you as soon as possible. My firm is still working to finalize the change before he passes away."

"Change? What change?" Shiro asked as he fumbled with the envelope, panic overtaking the ease with which he usually went about his tasks.

Upon seeing Shiro's struggle, Keith got up from the gang's usual booth to open it for him.

"Mr. Iverson didn't discuss this with you?"

"I- No. What was there to discuss?"

"Shiro, just read the letter. I'm pretty sure it's in there." Keith said as he squeezed the older man's hand, holding out the folded letter to him. "I'm here for you. We're all here for you."

Shiro sighed as he looked down at the letter and unfolded. Lance, Hunk and Katie all came to his support as he read the letter out loud with tears in his eyes and a lump in his throat.

" _Dear Takashi,_

 _I'm sorry it took me until my death bed to figure out Takashi was actually your first name. I would have said I wished you had corrected me the day I hired you, but you really seem to like your nickname._

 _I know I don't have long, so I wanted to take the time I have left on this earth to tell you that over the past eight years, I've come to think of you as my own son. To reward you as such, I've decided to leave you my restaurant._

 _My kids don't care much for owning the place themselves, and I don't want it sold to people who would segregate it again. I trust you can keep the place afloat and help out kids like you who need a place to go._

 _Thank you for everything, but most of all congratulations. You now run your very own business._

 _I'll be watching you, son._

 _Theodore Iverson_ "


	3. 2: Black Tie White Noise

It was the day of the funeral, and Shiro couldn't be there.

Instead, he spent his time meticulously cleaning his diner, and drilling Lance to do the same. He had arranged with Teddy's family that everyone would come to the diner for coffee and lunch when the service at the funeral home was done, free of charge. It was what they thought Teddy would have wanted, and Shiro felt it would be wrong to charge the family of the man who had been like a father to him for eight and a half years. They expected a lot of people, so Shiro had made sure to get up early and make thirty pots of coffee, to be kept warm in a large, stainless steel tank, and upwards of fifty sandwiches before Lance even showed up for his shift.

"Man, that must be one long service." Lance complained as he leaned on his mop. After three hours of intense cleaning, he was sure there would be blisters on his hands. "What time was everyone supposed to be here?"

"Half past eleven." Shiro replied simply.

"It's noon." Lance sighed, checking his watch.

"They're grieving people, Lance. You can't rush them."

"His kids didn't seem too worried about rushing you."

"I'm fine." Shiro answered to a question Lance didn't ask.

"Oh, look, there they are!" Lance said as a man in the black suit came through the door. Not the attorney from the other day. No, they recognized this man from the funeral home. Though, to their surprise, he was alone.

"Uh, not to be rude, but where is everyone?" Lance asked almost immediately when the man walked in.

"They're not coming." The man told them simply. "The family decided to have the lunch at the eldest son's house. But don't worry, a caterer from Carlsbad is taking care of the food and coffee."

Lance glanced at Shiro. The patient, kind and loving Shiro that was understanding of everything. The Shiro that said 'patience yields focus'. The Shiro that always tried (and succeeded) to be the bigger person. The Shiro that had been put through a wringer various times in his still very young life, and this last week had been no different as he scrupulously planned this afternoon with people he knew hated him in memory of a man he knew loved him.

And now they weren't coming.

For a minute, something changed in Shiro. And Lance wasn't sure how to feel about it.

"'Don't worry'? ' _Don't worry'_?!" Shiro snapped.

Lance recoiled, he had never seen the man like this.

"I've been here since six o'clock, working my head off to make sure everything was perfect. I _missed the funeral_ so the lunch could be here!"

"H-hey! Ever heard of 'don't shoot the messenger'?" The man complained, backing out of the building with his hands raised. "Geez."

"Shiro? Are you okay?" Lance asked carefully.

The man drew a shaking breath before he answered. "Go to the back and call the gang. Have them invite anyone they want. It would be a shame if all this food would go to waste."

"That doesn't really answer my question…"

"Just go. I'll be fine, I just need a minute."

Shiro sighed as he let himself fall onto the couch of one of the booths. Deep down, he knew why he wasn't told the lunch had moved. Teddy's oldest son had never liked him. Or rather, he had hated the idea that his father would so readily accept a Jap to work at his diner when he, himself had applied as well. The man hadn't been afraid of telling Shiro exactly that.

The fact that Shiro had now inherited the restaurant and the plot of land it sat on from the man's father must have been the final straw. Shiro knew the man wasn't dumb, either. He must have put the plot in place in order to both keep Shiro away from his father's funeral and make Shiro lose as much money as possible in one swift move.

Upon that realization, Shiro let his tears flow for the first time that day. The grief, the anger, every emotion he had kept bottled up in the last week came pouring out as a sob shook his entire body. It was at that moment, absolutely the worst moment possible, that the bell rang. Someone had come into the restaurant. He couldn't deal with this right now. The man could only hope that whomever just came in didn't spot him lying in the booth, soundlessly crying his eyes out.

"Um, excuse me?" Called a voice Shiro didn't think he'd ever hear again. "Is Shiro here?"

* * *

"Okay Shiro, everyone is on their way." Lance said as he returned from the back of the restaurant.

He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a girl kneeling in front of Shiro, holding his hands. She had beautiful, long white hair and her dark brown skin was just about flawless. The girl held Shiro's hand in hers, as well as a used handkerchief. Had she been consoling him here this whole time?

She looked up when she heard Lance come in. "Who is this?" The girl asked.

"Uh, Allura, this is Lance. He helps me out around here." Shiro explained. "And Lance, this is Allura. I met her some years ago, and frankly I didn't think I'd ever see her again."

"It's nice to meet you, Lance." Allura smiled, extending her hand.

Lance smiled as he shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Allura. Shiro is very lucky to have you show up on a day like this."

"Lance, do you think the others would mind if Allura joins us for the rest of the day?" Shiro asked on behalf of the girl.

"Not at all." He smiled.

* * *

"So, what do you guys think about the new girl?" Lance asked, peeking over the edge of the booth. Shiro and Allura had been sitting at the counter all day, just talking. He hadn't expected Shiro to be actually laughing out loud, merely three hours after shouting at the guy from the funeral home.

"She's cute." Katie said as she took a bite from her free sandwich. When she noticed the boys staring at her, she spoke up with her mouth still full. "What? I have a pair of working eyes."

"She's right, though." Hunk noted. "Lucky Shiro."

"I don't know…" Keith mumbled. "There's something about her that's just… off to me, you know?" He said before downing his coffee.

"Do you mean her hair or her makeup?" The girl next to him asked.

"No, there's something else about her. Some weird vibe she gives off or something... I can't put my finger on it." He answered, never losing sight of the girl. "I'm not sure I trust her."

"Look, I know Shiro is like a brother to you and you wanna protect him, but can't deny that this girl is making him happy." Hunk argued. "Maybe just let him have this."

Keith groaned, still staring daggers at the woman.

"Keith, baby, come on." Lance said, taking Keith's hand. "Just for one day, let him have this. Then you can go back to your usual distrusting ways."

The boy in red only sighed. How could he go against his boyfriend, after all?

"Okay, fine. But just today."


	4. 3: Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

"Can I just ask… Where have you been? I mean, it was one night, how long ago now? Six? Seven years? I didn't expect you to remember, much less come back..." Shiro asked, looking at the girl incredulously.

"I don't know. I suppose I just always felt some kind of connection. I always did feel drawn back to this place… But with the way you talked about mankind, and the way they treat themselves... I wanted to know why things here are the way they are, so I decided to educate myself. I went to college." Allura said, shrugging.

"Wait, you went to college?" He asked, even more befuddled than before. "No offense, but what college would take you?"

Allura bit her lip, thinking hard. Then, in a burst of inhuman strength, she gripped Shiro's wrist and dragged him off into the kitchen, obscuring them from the gang's prying eyes.

* * *

"Uh oh…" Pidge mumbled over the edge of her drink.

"What?" Lance asked, whipping around to look at where Shiro and Allura were sitting just a second ago.

"Yep, I'm not trusting this for one second." Keith huffed. "Move over, Pidge, I'm going in."

"Pidge, stay. Keith, what the Hell? He's like a brother to you, right? Let him get some every once in a while." Hunk said in an attempt to calm him down.

"Hunk, if I thought they were only making out I'd leave them the fuck alone, but there's something weird about this Allura girl and I'm about to find out." Keith said as he got up to climb over the back of the booth.

"Lance, say something!" Hunk argued.

"Nope. I was the voice of reason yesterday. If he wants to make a fool of himself, I say let him."

"Thanks, babe." Keith called back as he snuck behind the counter to peek through the window, into the kitchen.

* * *

"Look, Shiro, I really like you, and I want us to be friends…" Allura mumbled.

"Me too." Shiro clumsily blurted out, but Allura only smiled.

"That's why I wanted to show you this." Allura whispered as she showed her hands to Shiro as slowly the skin from her fingertips, all the way up to her elbows, turned from dark brown to light pink. "I just figured… If we're going to be friends, you should probably know that I'm…" She paused for a second, looking for the right words. "That I'm not like you. In more ways than one." She slowly looked up at him, to find that Shiro's eyes were still fixated on her arms, filled with wonder, rather than the horror she expected.

* * *

Keith, on the other hand, was not looking on with wonder. Though it wasn't horror either. It felt more like a kind of caution, that had a firm grasp on his heart as he worried for the older man's safety. He slinked away from the window with his suspicions more-or-less confirmed; Allura was not a regular human being.

"Keith, are you okay?" Lance asked carefully as his boyfriend approached their booth. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

"I don't know what I saw…" Keith said, his voice shaking as he spoke, sitting down in the spot where Pidge had been blocking his way out earlier. "But that girl is not human."

* * *

"Allura, how is this possible?" Shiro asked as he held on to her hand, which had started turning brown again.

"Do you remember those reports of that object that crashed at a farm in Roswell, a few years ago?" She asked him in return.

Shiro nodded.

"That was Coran and my fault. Earth wasn't our intended destination, but after traveling for a few light years, our ship had seen its best days. It didn't have the power or fuel left to resist your planet's gravitational pull… So, we landed here, narrowly avoided your local authorities and we slowly built up a life for ourselves." She smiled.

"So, you're an alien with the power to change color?" Shiro crudely summarized.

"Yes." She nodded.

"But if you can do that, why don't you just stay caucasian? You could live like a queen, so why don't you?"

Allura looked down. "Shifting colors takes a lot of energy. I can only do it for a few hours at a time. And… I don't know. It felt like cheating." She mumbled, her eyes glistening. "I mean, any colored person that was born on Earth has to overcome their hardships and gain status through sheer force of will and resilience. Like you did. Meanwhile, I would just be using a power I was born with to achieve that. I want to _earn_ it."

"In that case..." Shiro said, deep in thought. "We're hiring."

"You're hiring?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "It's pretty much just Lance and me around here nowadays… Having an extra waitress would probably be a good idea. I mean, if you have another job or if this isn't what you're looking for, that's fine, but-"

"I'll do it." She said, taking hold of his hands.

"Great!" Shiro beamed. "Could you start next week?"

"Yes, absolutely."

"Alright, let's go then. The others might already be getting the wrong idea." He joked as he held the door open for her, stopping dead in his tracks as they were caught in the suspicious glares of his younger friends.

"Shiro, we need to talk."


	5. 4: Lady Stardust

"Don't look at me like that, Shiro, I saw it with my own eyes!" Keith shouted as he frantically paced around the narrow space between the booth and one of the other tables. "I saw the color of her skin change, you can't explain that one away! White hair, sure, you can bleach hair. Pink markings under her eyes, whatever, eyeshadow can do that. But nothing, and I mean _nothing_ on God's green Earth can change someone's skin color like _that_!"

"Look, Keith, I know she's a little different…" Shiro argued to his younger friend, glancing at Allura who was sitting at the counter, waiting for the intervention to be over. "But I've been in love with her ever since she set foot in this place seven years ago. Can't you just, I don't know, give her a pass? The benefit of the doubt?"

Keith groaned, his face buried deeply in his hands before he stood back upright to regain his composure and looked at Shiro. "You know, if this was any other girl, I would be doing that right now. But Allura is an-... an-!"

"Extra terrestrial." Pidge finished.

"Thank you! Shiro, we don't know what we're dealing with here!"

"That's because you haven't let me tell you." Allura said quietly but full of determination, getting up from where she sat and making her way over to the gang, her piercing blue eyes looking straight through Keith.

"Then you'd better start talking." Keith demanded. However, his voice faltered, trembling ever so slightly as she came closer.

Allura was beautiful, of course, but could be just as intimidating if she tried.

"Thank you." She started. "It all happened eight years ago."

* * *

 _The Royal palace of Altea, 9.146, eight years ago._

Princess Allura let out a deep sigh as she glared into the mirror. She was modeling a dress for herself that she was meant to wear to an event that was being held at the palace later that night. It was a nice dress, sure, made of high-quality silk in her favorite blues. Expertly made, too. But it wasn't entirely what she was hoping to wear to her intergalactic diplomatic debut.

She was going to mediate between two rivaling factions that had more or less the same end goal, but utilized vastly different methods in order to get there and became extremely hostile when one came too close to the other.

It was a tangled mess that was rooted much more deeply than it needed to be, like so many skirmishes in the vastness of the known universe. People with affinity and talent for untangling these messes, such as princess Allura, were sought after throughout the entire universe.

And, you know, first impressions mattered.

She brushed her hair for the umpteenth time that day as she mulled over and anticipated anything and everything that could be said at the negotiation tables and every possible outcome to every possible thing she could say. Ninety percent of them weren't pretty.

And it _was_ frightening to be put on such a complicated case as your very first venture into diplomacy. However, it wasn't as frightening as her guards kicking down the door of her bedroom. The princess barely managed not to shriek when her usual guard grabbed her wrist and guided her away from her room and to the hangars.

"What is going on? Where are you taking me?" Allura demanded.

"The factions you were to negotiate with changed their minds and are attacking Altea." The guard said, not stopping the relatively short journey to the hangars for a second. She tried to be all-business, but the concern in her heart bled through to her voice. "With two intergalactic empires fighting us from both sides… We don't know how much longer we can hold them off. We're sending you away for your own safety."

"What?!" The princess exclaimed in disbelief. "Let me talk to them, perhaps I can fix this!"

"Please, trust me when I say everything has already been tried." The guard said. Her tone had grown more despairing. "This doesn't have to be permanent, princess. You're going to a sister planet that has close ties with us, Pollux. When it's safe for you to return to Altea, you may."

Allura sighed and resigned to her fate. "Is anyone coming with me?" She asked, but her question was immediately answered when she saw a man sitting in the pod she would supposedly take to Pollux. Coran. Her father's most trusted friend and advisor.

"Hello, princess. Ready for our little trip?" Coran asked as he helped Allura into the pod. He smiled at her, but she wished he hadn't. It was full of pain and sorrow.

Hesitantly, she nodded. "Yes. I think so."

"Alright Coran, let's go through this one more time." One of the engineers spoke up. "We turned off all communication devices and under no circumstances are you to turn them on until you reach Pollux. This way we minimize the risk of you being tracked and followed. On the other hand, the navigation system and autopilot are fully operational and we urge you to use them. The battery is fully charged and should get you there in three phoebs, give or take. The back of the pod is filled with enough food to last you that long. Lastly, this is an old model, Coran. I know you know how to fly this, but don't try to pull any of the stunts you would with a new one."

"Of course not." The man said, patting the engineer's shoulder. "Thank you all for helping us make this escape. We hope we can see you again soon."

The guard shot Allura a last, sad smile. "Goodbye, princess. Goodbye, Coran."

"Goodbye."

* * *

"Coran and I left everything we knew and loved behind that night…" Allura whispered, wiping tears from her eyes that she didn't even realize were there. "My friends, my family, my whole planet… I don't know if they're even alive."

The room was so quiet, one could have heard a pin drop.

Ever since Keith had come back with the news that Allura might not be human, everyone had started to fill in the blanks as to who and what she was, and where she came from, in their own minds. The entire gang had theorized that something like this would probably have happened to her, but they were in strong denial. Because everyone had seen that Allura was a genuinely nice girl, even Keith, and they wouldn't have wished this upon their worst enemies.

Pidge was the first to lean forward and reach out to place her hand on Allura's in an act of sympathy, but was interrupted by a loud crash, a projectile passing right by their heads, soon followed by the sound of shouting shouting across the street and a car speeding away as the window next to their booth shattered and came raining down in billions of razor sharp pieces.

Lance shrieked.

"What was that?!"

"Is everyone okay?" Hunk asked as he carefully shook the shards out of his hair.

"I think so." Pidge mumbled. "And be careful, that stuff gets everywhere."

Allura still seemed frozen in shock. Not sure what to expect, Shiro carefully reached for her arm, but hesitated to touch her.

"Allura, are you okay?" He asked.

In the blink of an eye, the princess seemed to come back down to Earth.

"I'm… Yes, I'm fine." She whispered, even though her breath still hitched and her hands still shook.

"I'm so sorry this happened, Allura." Shiro looked down. "I mean, today of all days… You deserve better than this."

"It's alright, Shiro." She said, wrapping her arms around his waist and laying her head on his shoulder. "You deserve better, too."

"I'm gonna go to the back to get a broom." Lance announced. "Anyone coming with?"

"Save me a dustpan. I'll help you clean." Keith said.

"Yeah, I'm coming too." Pidge said, sliding out of the booth, scattering even more shards onto the vinyl floor. "I'll call my dad, see if he can somehow help motivate the police."

"I'll drive over to my dad's woodshop. Maybe he has some boards we can use to close up this gaping hole." Hunk said as he got up as well. "Shiro, you wanna tag along?" He asked, only to receive a sharp elbow in the side from Pidge.

"Maybe it's best to leave them alone for now." She hissed through gritted teeth.

"Oh, right." He whispered back.

The conversation wasn't lost on Shiro, but he nevertheless elected to ignore it for his friends' sake.

They stood there in silence for a while as the rest of the gang scurried off to do their thing, until a sob heaved Allura's body.

"I'm sorry, Allura." He whispered into her hair.

"I'm sorry, Shiro." She whispered into his shoulder.


End file.
